Chapter 4 - Course of Action
Amidst the dense forest, the visible fear and anxiety of the poor children swell inside of them as the near glimpse of the monster ahead is as daunting as ever. To come across such a creature in this multitude, and for this to be the fate of these former slaves, is truly unfair.
A circumstance where one would pray for a miracle was something a few of these children were pleading for with their eyes filled to the brim with hope. As seconds went by, even while their insensible wish was nowhere near ever being granted, they continued to beg with a great fortitude for a slim chance of hope.
"H-Help!" Nemesis cries out, her body quivering with fear.
"Don't you come close, you monster!!" Thanatos shouts, desperately trying to rescue Nemesis.
Nemesis' tears, Thanatos' shout, and the unnoticed tremble under Hypnos' skin were all within the young child's vision and senses until the scene was drilled into her mind.
'How could this happen..?' She asks herself.
The monster towers over the trees of the forest, its unsettling height alarming to believe such a creature exists. However, it's real, and it's currently dominating pale humans with its overwhelming size.
"What is that..?!" Hypnos speaks, her voice filled with shock and fear.
"Isn't that..?"
The young child starts to feel the weight of the situation when she discovers the true identity of this monster. The significance behind everyone's emotions when faced with a suffocating atmosphere, and yet fear, isn't one she understands.
'It can't be..'
The familiarity was reaching out to her when she finally grasped the full image of the monster, and with that, it stirred the entirety of the young child's mind. Instead of an anxious chill, it was a nostalgic yet ghoulish piece of a recollection of the nameless child, prompting a shiver to her core.
'How do... I.. know this..?'
'This monster...'
As the pages of memories were flipping inside her head, the nameless child showed no trust in this peculiar book. Even so, the picture of this creature standing before her was what the pages stopped at, revealing the true identity of this being within her.
'To where have I.. ever seen such.. a creature?'
'Nor.. a book I have never held..?' The child ponders with uncertainty.
"Are you able to stand and run?"
At that moment, Hypnos lends a hand to support the nameless child to stand straight, his voice alleviating the riddles inside the child's head to die down little by little, as though his tone is comforting to her ears.
"Ah... Yes, I'm fine—"
The child is cut short by an ache, the action of a push from Victor earlier had led to a bruise engraved on her knee. Although the child can bear the burden and take a step forward, the torturous pain won't allow her to go far.
Enduring it herself won't last long as well, because the eyes of Hypnos have seen through the young child so clearly. In the end, the child becomes a major burden to the rest and the thought of it disappoints her greatly.
'..Why am I.. so weak..?'
"Hypnos... I'm sorry." The young child apologizes.
"What..?"
His reaction to the child's words is nothing short of a surprise to Hypnos. Even if it was shocking to him, the crestfallen face of the child prompts Hypnos to reply with the right words.
"Everything will be alright. We can get through this safely!"
Despite the near deaths of others and oneself, Hypnos proceeds to be cool-headed in front of the nameless child. Even as his body is shaking from the taunting eyes of the beast, Hypnos doesn't hesitate to calm the child down.
To witness this many times, how could the nameless child not act properly? And that wasn't all.
Together with the unpleasant ambiance, the young child's point of view was dyed with Nemesis' terrified expression, while Thanatos was appalled by the monster's forwarding steps as he stood bravely to protect Nemesis.
Once the child takes a glance at Hypnos, what she sees is him trying his utmost to stay sangfroid despite his trembling.
'But..' The child bites her pale lower lip.
Indeed. To the four children who are powerless against a beast of greater size than them, how will they hold onto their lives with a low probability of surviving?
"Listen to me, everyone!!!"
With her voice, the young child had everybody's attention on her, including the beast that was about to set foot towards Thanatos and Nemesis.
Upon close inspection, the nameless child suddenly caught glimpses of a scar on the left side of the monster. What mattered the most to the child wasn't the odd shape of its scar, it was the fresh wound on the creature.
Although it's faint, as if a bucket full of blood had diminished, blood is still dripping onto its fur. But that's not important right now! Even though the fresh wound is a clear sign of hope, it's too much to rely on a wound that is neither helping them from escaping. In other words, it's best to start moving now!
—Thud!
"That's a Chimera!" The nameless child exclaimed.
The looks on everyone's faces when they witnessed a simple rock bouncing off the body of a ferocious beast. It was no surprise that they were stunned by the young child's action.
"Chimera…?" Thanatos repeats.
Nevertheless, the rock wasn't what bewildered Hypnos, it was the infamous name that startled him immensely. Because in his past, his mother once told him of a certain tale about a monstrous beast from a book...
"A..a Chimera..?" Hypnos gulps.
A monster of the old that was once known within the tale of fiction to Hypnos and told to him by his loving mother, was identified by the young child as a 'Chimera'.
It was a lion with the tail of a venomous snake. In addition to that, there's also a goat's head protruding out of its right rear. In other words, it's the beast of all beasts, an apex predator of the entire forest!
The moment when the nameless child throws a rock at the Chimera, the lion averts its focus toward her, tormenting her with its direct glare. The snake slithers toward the front, and the goat's head with strange eyes stares down at Hypnos.
—GROWLLLLL!
The Chimera's concentration on the young child is too much to say harmless, it's as if there's a target ready to set a flame. And without a delay to the overwhelming chill, the child lets out a shout when she finally notices.
"Move!!"
Before Hypnos and the child could react properly, they had their eyes set on the lion where its mouth was summoning forth a ball of fire. It was aimed at both of them, and not a second to spare for a quick escape from this death beam!
—FLAAARRREEE!!
The fire pierces and sets the place ablaze while emerging fiercely to illuminate the area with heat! Before the fire can lay its flickering flame on human skin, the young child pushes forward and shoves both herself and Hypnos far from the firing range.
"Urk..!!" The child groans after putting pressure on her wounded knee.
During all of this monstrosity, the second Thanatos and Nemesis caught a glimpse of the Chimera's might. The anxiety and fear rushed over to their very core as they were hurrying toward the two who were on the ground.
Even while they were frightful of a monster enough to tremble at an alarming rate, they refused to forget about their friends and made their way toward Hypnos and the child out of deep concern.
"Don't…come here!" The child cries out.
But to their surprise, their worries over a friend caught them off guard when the child cried out to halt their movements. For what reason does the nameless child have to stop her friends from assisting her when her body has visible wounds, including the injured Hypnos who is letting out groans?
After enduring such a ferocious moment, Nemesis and Thanatos found themselves at a loss for words when they witnessed the child's first action. For her to warn them to stay where they are instead of taking care of herself, Thanatos and Nemesis were struck by the child's selflessness…
"Burn everything surrounding the Chimera!"
"We need to.. fight fire with fire!"
At that very moment, the child understood how undetermined her plan could be. With no knowledge of whether it will succeed or fail, she's now waiting to see everyone's reactions to her uncertain plan.
However, this isn't the time to be wasting every second contemplating whether or not a plan is worth a try. Rather, everything is on the line where even the slightest hope is all it needs for these children to try and strive!
"Please! We have to escape together!"
In an instant, when Thanatos and Nemesis heard the desperate cry coming from the child, they instinctively understood what had to be done. As soon as possible, they followed along with her plan without any hesitation for their existence to continue onward!
To place their trust in a murderer is no different from suicide. Even so, they choose to believe their time spent with the child is genuine. If given the opportunity again, they would continue to place their beliefs on the child instead of a cowardly bastard like Victor who has deserted everyone for his safety.
—-------
—SWOOOSH!!!
After a few minutes, Thanatos made haste and ran around the Chimera with the second batch of tree branches set on fire, handing some of them over to Nemesis to commence their plan.
Likewise, one step to the right and another to the left, Thanatos and Nemesis dash in separate directions to further startle the Chimera, but while they were at it, the beast finally grew tired of the two children's tricks and proceeded to howl a breath of fire.
"Hey, kitty!" The child calls out to the Chimera.
"Why don't you focus on me?!"
—ROAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!
Clusters of rocks, branches, a handful of death caps, and so on. Anything would suffice to divert the Chimera's attention away from Thanatos and Nemesis. With each throwable object being tossed to the monster, Hypnos did most of it by running around and collecting things to throw.
On the other hand, the sorry state of the child when she tries to walk with her bruised leg is as pitiful as one can see. All she can do is use her commanding voice to decide everyone's moves and routes so she can better offer her plan to the three children.
"Hypnos! Evade the snake!"
"Nemesis! Keep running! Don't look back!"
Everything is processing as well as the young child had hoped. From telling Hypnos to dodge the tail of a snake to stopping the Chimera's fire breath by tilting it slightly to the right to safely let Nemesis sprint out of the fire's line of sight, the child had been throwing rocks at the monster as well as planning out everybody's movements, and so forth.
"Be careful on your left, Thanatos. The smoke will cloud your lungs!"
The moment the child receives her friends' life and death trust, that is when she must be serious. As everyone's trust rests on the nameless child's shoulders, it is her responsibility to keep their lives intact, no matter how rough and tough it is.
—RAWWWRRRR!
At a glance, the child seems to be doing great with her assistance. Her intuition is doing an excellent job of discerning the situation, and it's because of it that she was able to become aware of a dangerous foreshadowing in front of her…
Like a flicker of a flame, it appears as clear as a crystal to the children's viewpoint when she fully recognizes the danger up ahead!
"Everyone!! Cover your ears!"
At the same time as the child's blaring bawl, the sickening foreshadowing that haunted her took a turn for the worse. The Chimera that had been constantly dispersing a breath of fire, was now unleashing something far more hazardous!
Even as a Chimera is unable to speak in the ways of a human, no mortal should ever favor its unintelligibility as an animal. After all, it's still a beast that hunts its prey from its experience and instincts of an animal.
The moment it realizes the hidden truth behind these children's nonsense, it piques the Chimera's interest and wrath!
—RAWWWWRRRRRR!!!
Like thunderous lightning, the Chimera unleashes a booming roar at its surroundings as a warning to the humans' underestimation of itself. Before long, the sheer volume of its roar cancels out everyone's ears to replace it with a sharp ringing to torment them!
"Ackkk!!" Hypnos persists through his groan.
"Urk!" Thanatos grunts.
Despite their hands acting as an obstruction to their ears, the shrieks that accompany the roar, and the children who begin to suffer the cruel fate of having their ears temporarily fail them, all of it happened after the child proved her words!
"Safe.." Nemesis murmurs.
On the spur of the moment, when they covered their ears with hands that were filled with sweat from the burning heat of the area, they couldn't believe that the child had anticipated this and warned them of the dangers in an instant.
Only this small act of kindness shows everyone how beneficent the nameless child is. The child who gave each of them their name became the commander of their lives.
The gratitude everyone had for the nameless child grew stronger over the seconds as they were content with the commands being given to them pragmatically without a pause.
—WHOOOOSHHH!
"..." Hypnos would have called the child, yet he didn't have even an inkling of her name and failed to truly call her. Because…
When the three children saw the child with bleeding ears as a consequence of her last seconds' act of masking her ears from the beast's roar, they felt compelled to stand against the Chimera with their last strength.
It is only right to repay kindness with another form of kindness.
And so, without any delays, Thanatos, Hypnos, and Nemesis bear the faded ringing in their ears and proceed to make do with what they have in their hands.
"Keep your eyes on me!" Hypnos yells at the monster.
With a toss of a rock to the Chimera's goat's head, a throw to the lion's eyes, and a flicker of flame onto the open wound of the Chimera, the three of them continue to do what's necessary.
"Hey!"
"Over here, you beast!" Thanatos shouts.
—GROWLLLL!!!
Seeing how this is a loop of continuous tosses and turns, the Chimera's patience wears down at long last, and it's finally the start of a major counter to the children's foolish tricks!
Immediately, the Chimera sets its sights on the three children who were overwhelming it simply with rocks and so forth.
All of a sudden, it was the nameless child that the Chimera was glaring at with the entirety of its eyes and heads directed at her yet again. From then on, an unsettling chill raced through the young child's skin while she locked eyes with the beast in front of her.
And it didn't take long for Hypnos to notice the sudden shift of eye contact from the Chimera toward the nameless child. Sooner or later, the goosebumps that greeted his skin didn't prevent him from dropping everything he was doing to come to the child's rescue!
"We can't afford to lose her!" Hypnos thought.
"Not after what she has done until now!"
In due course, when the corner of Hypnos' eyes caught a glimpse of the forces that the Chimera would let loose upon a human child, it was by far the most menacing thing that Hypnos had ever laid his eyes on.
—SCREEEEHHH!!!
Once Hypnos witnessed the beam of impending doom aimed at his friend, he could no longer feel the strength in his legs, and the sheer thought of the young child's death scarred him immensely.
"STOPPPP!!!!" Hypnos let out a powerful outburst.
Fear of his inability, rather than fear of the Chimera's power, drove Hypnos to express his devastation in his helpless face.
Thanatos and Nemesis, who felt relieved by the misfire, had chills down their spines after the realization hit them like a meteor. The sight of the powerless Hypnos and the smiling face of the child upon turning their gazes to that certain location…
"..no..!"
"NOOOOO!!!!" Thanatos and Nemesis cry out in distress.
As the young child's eyes rest upon her new friends, who have anguished expressions with eyes clouded in despair, tears begin to fall from her cheeks and drip down toward the young child's dirty hands.
..It was her end, and she knew it very well.
"Stop it!!!"
Even though the child can't hear their faint voices behind the reverberant ringing sensation in her ears, her friends' actions are enough to represent the emotions they were expressing.
"Thank you.." The child without a name forms a helpless smile.
—SHRRIEEEEEEKKKKK!!!
The rustle of the burning trees signals the beginning of the Chimera's infernal breath, and what follows is the blazing sensation that haunts the child, seemingly like whispering words of farewell.
With a sudden pause of a second, time vanishes from the spot, leaving the children to witness their first friend die pointlessly and painfully from the ray of light.
"STOPPPPP!! YOU BASTARD!!!" Thanatos bellows at the top of his lungs toward the Chimera.
"B-BURN IT! We need to kill it before it kills her! HURRY UP!!!" Hypnos bellows in a resentful tone.
—SHRRRIEEEEEK!!?
No differences were made when the sound of their screams stuttered and shattered from the absolute loudness of their voices. The only outcome was that the goat head of the Chimera's fearsome roar and the lion's fire blinded and deafened everyone in the vicinity at the very end.
'Please!! Don't die!!! I haven't had the chance to learn your name! You can't just die like this! Ugh!' Hypnos thought desperately in sorrow.